Remodeling the Plane while you are flying it – part 3?  Melding Science and Spirituality

Today’s post is by regular contributor, Richard Jurin. Before his retirement, Richard led the Environmental Studies programme at the University of Northern Colorado, where he launched a degree in Sustainability Studies.  His academic interests are environmental worldviews and understanding barriers to sustainability. As ever, with our blogs, the views expressed are not necessarily shared by NAEE.

“Our true destiny…is a world built from the bottom up by competent citizens living in solid communities, engaged in and by their places” David Orr.

I am criticized by some environmental friends that despite my having a science and engineering background I focus too much on the social side of Sustainability.  In my text “Principles of Sustainable Living” I have only one chapter devoted to Technological sustainability.  And while I discuss the social side a lot, I also support the ‘Path less Spoken’ – the spiritual connections we must cultivate.  I feel I am in good company as many internationally renowned scientists echo my views.  

“Unless we are willing to encourage our children [and ourselves] to reconnect with and appreciate the natural world, we can’t expect anyone to help protect and care for it” … “The way we see the world shapes the way we treat it. If a mountain is a deity, not a pile of ore; if a river is one of the veins of the land, not potential irrigation water; if a forest is a sacred grove, not timber; if other species are biological kin, not resources; or if the planet is our mother, not an opportunity — then we will treat each other with greater respect. Thus is the challenge, to look at the world from a different perspective” David Suzuki.  

We see science and spirituality as two radically different things.  Yet, as quantum physics is showing us, they are not just connected, they are the same thing but with different kinds of thinking and language to explain themselves.  Science has spent since 1543 (moving away from orthodox religiosity) trying to mechanistically explain the world, how things are connected, and how they work and function.  Many much earlier traditions began with the premise that all things are always connected and instead of trying to explain them, they asked different questions, such as how do we use the interconnectivity of the natural world to become better people.  In the western world to our detriment, we focused on believing just one or the other, but not both.    

I think it is fair to say that humanity faces a future unprecedented in orthodox recorded human history.  And that we are presently ill-equipped to face it.  Too many believe catastrophe narratives that make them fearful and all too willing to allow ill-equipped hierarchies to make poor decisions on their behalf.  There is a need for wisdom.  A new science and a new spirituality now explain this interconnectivity.  It is a new language – Coherence and Resonance.  We are here to live connected purposeful lives.  The Vision of a Well-Being Economy – We must shift how we understand and build societal health and prosperity, looking beyond economic growth to collective well-being and environmental/ecological sustainability as definitions of success, not profit generated.  

 We face challenges today that global humanity has never ever faced, and yet we persist in believing that we can solve these problems with the same thinking that got us to this point.  We don’t need a revolution to replace any hierarchy, but a transformation of the human mind and soul itself.  We got fixated on technical problems and catastrophe thinking that we needed technical solutions, yet we forgot to think about the human resource catastrophe and human resource solutions.  We must have technology that benefits both us and the environment.  They may not always be the ‘economically’ best ones but they are better (e.g. Hydrogen fuel as an energy source and energy storage system, or organic poly-cropping that is less friendly to big-Agricultural technology).   

So, what has to change?  We all must recognize just how insane our world has become!  We are at war with everything.  We know that what we are doing is insane, but the system is set up to develop profit and output in whatever form as the driver of such thinking.  Currently, technological innovations help a little to solve any problems, but since they are economically framed, they end up exacerbating them.   Like trying to tweak our technological systems, expecting them to solve global ecological problems isn’t working, we need to stop trying to tweak our educational systems and transform them completely.  These are both ongoing battles of orthodox versus transformational thinking.  We keep trying to do it at the national and international levels when localization may be the better solution. 

We must recognize creativity – the process of having original ideas that have value.  The ability to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, innovative concepts, or possibilities that have utility in solving problems, communicating with others, or entertaining ourselves and others.  We all have that ability to be imaginative and innovative, but unless we have the freedom to express that creativity outside the influence of big-business and economic expediency we shall always be stuck with short-term restrictive thinking that crushes unique ideas if they do not generate monetary profit.    

A viable future will be one of collaboration, respect, and integrity from a place of understanding, compassion, and Love.  This is not a Pollyanna kind of existence but one where people come together for the benefit of all, while growing from personal sovereignty.  We needed to disenthrall ourselves from this insane mindset!  We can remodel the plane while flying it, but we must have the individual sovereignty and freedom to do it since the insane hierarchical system has no idea how to do it.

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Richard can be contacted at: richardjurin@gmail.com